pascal's wager

matzevolt's picture

I like to think about a lot of stuff, one of them is the so called "Pascal's Wager". What it basically means, is, that you lose nothing if you believe and God doesn't exist but everything if you don't believe and he does exist. If you look at this for less than a second you might consider it rational. But after that one second, several things start to dismantle it

First: If God doesn't exist, you HAVE lost something. In Germany (don't know exactly about the rest of europe), you pay a tax when you're a member of a official church. That's about 4,5 % off your hard earned money every MONTH. You also lost the time you wasted listening to old superstitions and shit like that (Noah's Ark, Adam & Eve, I could go on and on).

Second: If ONE God exists, why should it be the ONE you believe in? There a tons of gods and goddesses and each god has different branches of religion behind it (Yahwe: christianity, islam and judaism). So even IF you might worship the right one, you could end up doing it the wrong way. And that means he/she's going to put you in hell or an equally nice place.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and thank you for the oppurtunity
If you have more points against or even a point for the logic behind it, feel free to post a comment

MATZEVOLT

Ophios's picture

don't think about Pascal's

don't think about Pascal's wager too much in your free time, if you stay here long enough, you'll get plenty of time to think about it.

AImboden wrote:
I'm not going to PM my agreement just because one tucan has pms.

Tilberian's picture

Also, Pascal's Wager isn't

Also, Pascal's Wager isn't a reason to believe in God, but only a reason to pretend to. We don't believe in things just because it is in our best interests to do so. We believe because we are convinced by evidence that something is true. Given this fact, is it likely that an omniscient God will be fooled by our mummery and admit us to heaven?

Blaise Pascal was a rogue who enjoyed his gambling and womanizing almost as much as his math. I personally think the Wager was and is a gigantic joke that he's perpetrated on the world of religion. 

Lazy is a word we use when someone isn't doing what we want them to do.
- Dr. Joy Brown

Brian37's picture

Pascal's Wager is nothing

Pascal's Wager is nothing but an appeal to emotion. It is nothing but a used car salesman saying, "If you buy now, you'll save hundreds". Which fails to take into account the other dealerships and cars that may be without defect(defect meaning use of logic).

Sure you could buy that car because it is a convertable, and it is a pretty shade of red and costs less than the same one down the street. But did you test drive it? Did you look up it's history? Has it been in any accidents? Does it have any mechanial problems?

When it comes to the theist those problems dont exist because the dealer "Can do what he wants" at your expense. And you are to blame for the car he sold you.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog

Rejection of Pascals Wager Link

This article pretty much says it all:

 http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/pascal.html